Cake wreck

If I could have turned around and gone home after thirty minutes at work today, I would have been very tempted. It was one of those days when the ceiling comes crashing in and then, for good measure, the walls topple and floor collapses.

While everyone and their mothers were out on Friday, IT replaced two office computers, one of which functions as the server for a critical program. If this computer is out of the network, the program ceases to work on all of the others...and it just so happened that I needed this software for a show taping later in the day. (Never mind that I also had to write all of my scripts for the show and do the requisite video editing, which I figured would keep me occupied.)

Then I learned that the station was not on the air. Following the regular steps was not rectifying the matter. By the way, the hard line connection to the government building was bad again after being repaired last week and being needed expressly for this evening. And did I mention that I was the only one in the office until late in the work day?

This is the sound of my head exploding.

Everything got worked out one way or another, some from my ability to improvise and some due to others coming through when needed, but I felt like tonight was the right time to try out the fabled 5-minute chocolate mug cake recipe I'd seen on the Ravelry message boards. If it worked, this would be the ideal cake--no leftovers--to make myself for my imminent birthday.

The gist of it is that you mix the ingredients in a coffee cup and stick it in the microwave for a quick cycle. Then, cake! It sounded suspect to me, but what did I have to lose if it didn't work?

I'll grant that I used all-purpose flour rather than cake flour--like I'd ever use enough of that to have it on hand--but I did everything else by the book (assuming that high on my appliance equals 1000 watts). I watched it for the first minute to make sure that the blasted thing didn't explode inside the microwave and then came back two minutes later to check out the result.

Sure enough, there was something that looked cake-like in the mug. Amazing! Or maybe not. It was largely flavorless and spongy like all get out. Which isn't to suggest that I didn't eat all of it. I did. But I didn't like it.

Oh well. Disasters averted.